As recently as a year ago, this gig would not have been possible – at least in the order in which the acts took to the stage on Saturday night.
Local act Adebisi Shank’s career trajectory has been well-documented in these pages (though whispers of a US release in the offing may well be new),…

It is customary for all Manics-related reviews and interviews to begin with the same piece of recycled information, that as idealistic youngsters the Welsh rockers planned to release one great double album, become bigger than Jesus and then implode in spectacular fashion. It never happened and it’s not entirely clear why people keep bringing it…

Linkin Park’s fourth album isn’t a radical departure from its predecessor, 2007’s awful stadium rock effort Minutes to Midnight…, but the California six-piece have made enough changes in the right places to warrant a re-appraisal of their slipping position in the mainstream rock hierarchy. Pre-release whispers billed it as a return to the wall-to-wall

When the history of Outkast is written, Andre Benjamin will be regarded as the visionary in the partnership – the success of Dre’s ‘Hey Ya!’ single has seen to that, even though the track itself was probably the least innovative thing either member had done in years.
Anyone familiar with 2003’s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below… will

Fresh from a blistering set at the Download festival in England, Slash and his band of men landed in Ireland on Monday for a pair of sold-out shows at Dublin’s Vicar St. and Belfast’s Mandela Hall. With his previous bands, Guns N’ Roses and Velvet Revolver, Slash had headlined Slane and the old Point Theatre…

If Stephen Ellison has lived his life in the shadow of his illustrious family – his aunt and uncle were Alice and John Coltrane respectively – he’s shown little sign of letting the pressure get him down. Then again, if he smokes half as much weed as has been suggested it’s not entirely surprising.
This…

The Kele Okereke that graced the Academy stage on Sunday night was barely recognisable from the young Londoner who stumbled, almost apologetically, into the limelight five years ago as the frontman of sensitive dance-rock foursome Bloc Party. That spindly, spiky-haired youth may not have completely disappeared, but in his place stood a smoother, more confident…

Belfast’s LaFaro have been patiently plugging away on the Northern Ireland music scene for over five years now; gigging, releasing a couple of EPs, twiddling their thumbs and generally hanging around waiting for a vibrant music scene to erupt around their persons. The Ulster rock scene is now suddenly buzzing well beyond its borders, as…

‘You wanted the best… you got the best! The hottest band in the world… KISS!’
It’s hard to believe it’s been 22 years since those immortal words were screamed in earnest on an Irish stage. That iconic rallying call has been ripped off dozens of times since, most notably by Guns N’ Roses (‘You wanted…

A thousand-odd punters lined up outside the Savoy Theatre on a chilly Friday evening in Cork for much-hyped Boston electronic act Passion Pit. There was a sizeable crowd as early as 6 o’clock – though the show wasn’t due to begin until 10 – and their enthusiasm was only slightly dampened by the unscheduled late…

Republic of Loose fans witnessed a vastly-changed line-up take to the Academy stage on Christmas Eve-Eve-Eve (December 22nd to the rest of you) for their sole Dublin headlining show of 2009.
Founding members Mick and Dave Pyro, along with eponymous bassist Benjamin Loose, are all that remains of the old guard as cracks increasingly begin…

The Arctic Monkeys that took to the stage of Dublin’s O2 was a far cry from the precocious young band that burst upon an unsuspecting music scene just four years ago. Back then, the Sheffield quartet answered to nobody: they shunned the majors to sign for mid-sized indie Domino Records (home to Franz Ferdinand) and…

Any lingering doubts that chivalry is, in fact, dead were obliterated at the Academy on Thursday night. Though a majority female audience had filed in to see the red half of synth-pop duo La Roux perform in Dublin for the second time in 2009, the front row was, to a man, entirely male – in…

It’s been exactly three years since we last heard of Robbie Williams in any meaningful capacity. Then, it was the controversy over his single -Rudebox,’ one of the most self-evidently awful specimens of pop music in recent memory. The song earned its creator more mainstream exposure than his last album, 2004′s forgotten Intensive Care…,